Vale Tales
by JayRayGee
Summary: A collection of stories that take place in the real life city of Vale.


**Just a few notes before beginning this story. Similar to Public Enemy, this story also takes place in Remnant, but without all that Grimm and semblance stuff. The other thing is that while the characters will interact with each other and have character development and all that jazz, there is no real plot to this story. Just a collection of intertwining stories, some with multiple parts. This also isn't taking the place of another one of my chaptered stories (i.e. Salem's Little Secret, Public Enemy, or Melting Snow). Think of this more as a collection of one shots that take place in the same universe and have the same characters. Enjoy.**

"I swear to Oum, if you don't let me leave with my family right now, I'll blow all their heads off! Do you understand that?!" The sound of a deranged father and his terrified family screaming in the background made its way over the radio. Each of the police and SWAT members that surrounded this house could hear what this man was saying. The man had stormed into the home nearly 12 hours ago and taken his former family hostage. If it wasn't for an eagle-eyed neighbor that spotted the ex-husband, who knows what would have happened.

Since police first arrived, they learned that the man was an abusive husband and father that recently had a restraining order placed against him by his former wife out of fear and safety for the kids. They also learned he was an alcoholic and had anger management issues. Combine those two things with a broken state of mind, and it was easy to put the pieces together. Now, he held what appeared to be a loaded handgun to the wife's head while her kids watched in horror at what their dad was doing.

"We tried to talk him down and negotiate, but it seems the only thing he wants is to leave with the family." The police chief said over the phone. "Of course we're not going to give that to him. We're trying to think of a way to distract him or re-direct his attention away from the family long enough to subdue him." He paused briefly to let the person on the other end of the line talk. "We are trying to get police snipers set up, but these we're worried that these damn news helicopters will give away their position." Another brief moment of silence. "Well, some of the officers are reporting that he has the news on and is watching it. Hang on, let me give them a call to see if their set up yet." The man ended one call and picked up his radio and began talking to a secure channel. "Rose, you in position yet?"

"Yep. This isn't the first time I've had to avoid news helicopters." Ruby said confidently through the wireless Bluetooth earbud in her ear. Ruby had entering the police academy as soon as Vale let her, wanting to follow in her mom's footsteps of being a hero. After completing basics, she got a job as a patrol officer and soon gained a reputation of being a reliable and trustworthy member of the police. When the time was right, she asked if she could be considered for a police counter-sniper position. It took a few months for her query to be considered, but since she was very reliable and had a good reputation, she was easily accepted and has spent the last three years devoting herself to this craft, although recently she had been throwing caution into the wind.

The man sighed with relief. "That's great news. Where are you?" He asked, looking around.

"I'm to your seven thirty. The blue two story with the snow-covered roof." The police chief, spun around and spotted Ruby laying down on a piece of the roof that stuck out due to a large balcony. She was wearing a full body snow ghillie suit with a matching snow wrap for her gun. "I got a pretty decent angle on the man, but if he moved too far to the right, I lose him completely."

"Is it just you up there?" He asked.

"Nah, I got the rookie up here as my spotter, isn't that right Jaune?" Ruby said, elbowing Jaune, who lay next to her. Jaune was a new addition to the counter-sniper team, joining only a few weeks ago. While he was a couple years older than Ruby, it had taken him longer to earn the trust of the committee to let him begin his police sniper training. Today was his first day of on-the-job training, a trial by fire as his teachers called it. He was also wearing a snow ghillie suit with a matching face mask that covered everything except his eyes.

"Hey! I thought you said no movement except for an emergency?" Jaune said, worried.

"Don't worry. As long as you aren't doing jumping jacks, those helicopters won't notice you. They're too focused on the real story." Ruby said with a chuckle.

"Speaking of news helicopters, why didn't you set up at the house right across the street?" The police chief asked.

"Well, you said not to draw attention to ourselves and those people didn't evacuate. But the people living here did, sooo…" Ruby stated.

"So you entered a private property without permission?" He asked.

"Yep." Ruby responded quickly.

"Ms. Rose, that's trespassing!" he snapped back.

"I told you it was!" Jaune said, who also had an earpiece in his ear.

"One, shut up Jaune, I know that. And two, you can reprimand me later. Right now, I want to make sure that a kid doesn't die." Ruby said.

The police chief sighed angrily. "We'll discuss this later." He said, before holstering his radio and calling back the person he was talking to earlier.

"I just said that but okay." Ruby said, rolling her eyes. "Hey Jaune, how far away are we?"

"Uh, hang on." Jaune pulled his rangefinder out and looked through the sight towards the target house. "I'm getting 65 yards to the window. If we estimate that the man is six feet tall, than we can…" Jaune began.

"Dude, at this range, an additional yard or two won't matter. The bullet won't have time to drop." Ruby interrupted.

"Oh." Jaune said quietly before glancing into the rangefinder again. A few moments of silence went by before the faint sounds of a man screaming could be heard from nearby police radios on the street.

"What did he say?" Ruby asked Jaune.

"I couldn't hear him." Jaune replied.

"Hang on, I got this." Ruby tapped her ear piece. "Hey chief, what radio channel are hostage negotiations on?" She asked.

After about ten seconds, he simply replied "24" before going back to his phone call.

Ruby smirked as she pulled out her radio and placed it next to her sniper. Her weapon of choice, her baby was her M24 sniper rifle. Gifted to her by her mother upon graduation from the program, she brought it with her on every mission. It had been by her side during the times were the standoff or activity ended happily, and the times where she ended it the hard way. And now, as she held it in her hands, she had a feeling it was going to be the hard way today.

Ruby turned the dial of the radio scanner to channel 24 and turned the volume down. She placed it next to her sniper, in between her and Jaune, enabling them both to hear it.

"Tom, just listen to us. We want to help you. Just come out with you hands up and we'll make sure you see your family again." The hostage negotiator said calmly over the radio.

"No! I know that the moment you get the chance, you'll put a bullet between my eyes and throw me in a ditch." He yelled back into the mic, the sounds of his family could be heard in the background.

"He's crazy, right?" Jaune asked.

"Oh yeah, no sane person does what he does." Ruby replied, looking through her scope.

"Okay. So we're not going to put a bullet in his head and throw him in a ditch. Got it." Jaune said, comfortably.

"I mean, we won't throw him in a ditch." Ruby said, still looking through the scope at the man.

"So we are going to put a bullet in his head?" Jaune asked, a bit worried.

"If he threatens us or that family enough, I'll gladly do it." Ruby replied with confidence.

"How though? How could you just end his life like that?" Jaune questioned Ruby.

Ruby sighed and looked into Jaune's eyes. "Pretend those kids tied up in the living room as you brothers or your sisters. Or the wife is your mom. Tell me you won't kill a man threatening your family."

"So that's how you justify it? By pretending those people are someone else?" Jaune continued to ask.

"No. I justify it by treating him like he's scum, which he is." Ruby snapped back.

"But that 'scum' has a family, friends who care about him. You're telling me that those people don't matter?" Jaune asked.

"Jaune, if you want to become a police counter-sniper, you have to stop caring about those people. Let's pretend you're a hunter hunting a deer. You see your target, but you have to wait until just the right moment to fire. So you have to look at the deer for sometimes hours before killing it. If you name it or otherwise emotionally attach yourself to it, when that time comes, you won't be able to pull that trigger. And your target will get away. Same principle applies here. If you learn that man's name and think about his family and whatnot and you become attached to him, that when the time comes, will you be able to pull that trigger?" Ruby paused.

"I….I… Maybe if…." Jaune stuttered, unable to formulate an answer.

"Exactly. You couldn't. Which is why I pretend that it's my family or my friends that are being held hostage so that when that time comes, and I have to kill that man, I won't hesitate." Ruby said.

There were a few moments of silence between the two, the only noise was coming from the radio. Ruby focused on the man in the house and Jaune thought about what Ruby had just told him. Suddenly, the radio lit up as the man began to yell.

"You know what?! I've about had it with you fuckers telling me what to do and what's best for me, thinking I'm not serious! Well, you're about to see how fucking serious I am!" He yelled before throwing the radio to the ground. Frantically, Ruby looked through the scope, trying to spot the man. After failing to do so, she tapped her ear piece. "Chief, what's going on?" She said urgently.

After a brief pause, the chief responded. "It looks like he's zip tying the radio talk button down at the moment. We don't know what he's planning though." A few seconds after the chief stopped talking, Ruby's radio buzzed to life, as ambient noises could be heard coming from inside the house. Ruby, unable to see anything through the scope, was now looking at the radio, as if it had a small screen on it/ Suddenly, the sounds of shuffling a muffled child screaming could be heard. A struggle could be heard between a child and what Ruby could only assume was the father.

Then, a gunshot.

The sounds of terror and cries of pain could be heard very clearly through the radio and Ruby quickly snapped back to looking through her scope and was terrified at what she saw. Through the scope, she could see a child, no older than 11 lying face down on the carpet, blood seeping from a wound in the shoulder. Cries of shots fired and ems needed could be heard from the cops and SWAT in the area. Ruby drowned those sounds out as she focused on the scene unfolding through the window. As Ruby glanced through the scope, she suddenly saw what appeared to be a man crouched over the body, grab the child by the hair, stand up, and yanked her head up to face the window.

"You have 10 second to give me what I want before I put a bullet in his head!" The man cried through the radio. Ruby looked through the scope and saw the young girl being held up by her hair, her feet barely touching the carpet, with a loaded gun pressed against the back of her skull.

"10!"

"Fuck! Jaune, can you see him?!" Ruby said.

"No! I can only see his forearm, nothing passed that!" Jaune replied.

"9!"

"Chief! Do I have clearance to shoot to kill?" Ruby asked frantically through her ear piece.

"8!"

"Do you have a clear shot?" The Chief replied.

"7!"

Ruby looked through her scope. "No. I can see the gun and his forearm and that's it! It's blocked by a curtain!" Ruby replied.

"6!"

"If you don't have a clean shot, then no. Can't risk you hitting a family member or child." The chief responded.

"5!"

"If I don't shoot, you have a dead child on your hand! Chief I'm gonna take the shot whether you like it or not!" Ruby asked, this time practically yelling.

"4!"

"Ruby, if you take that shot, I'm gonna…" The chief's voice trailed off as Ruby took her earpiece out of her ear and tossed it aside, landing just on the other side of Jaune. Jaune meanwhile just lay there, not moving a muscle, slightly scared of the girl laying next to him with a loaded gun in her hands.

"3!"

Ruby, now placing both hands on her weapon, focused completely on the task in front of her. She took a deep breath, holding her breath and calming her nerves. She placed her finger on the trigger but didn't pull it just yet. Through her scope, she could just see the man's forearm and the gun. Judging the size of his arm, she quickly calculated the general location of his skull.

"2!"

Ruby drowned out all noises around her as she focused all attention towards killing the man. Still holding her breathe. She ever so slightly moved her rifle up towards where she accurately assumed his brain would be based on his stance and where his arm currently was. She aimed a tad higher than where she wanted the bullet to go, knowing that the barrel rested lower than the scope, and Ruby wanted a clean shot. Then, with swift and great force, she pulled the trigger.

"On…" Before the man could finish saying 'One', a 7.62 NATO round traveling at nearly 2600 feet per second pierced the glass window and the blue curtain before entering the man's skull right above the left eye. The bullet traveled effortlessly through the brain before exiting right next to the right ear. A mixture of blood, brain matter, mucus, and ear wax was sent flying through the air and splattered against the wall and carpet behind the man. His grip on the child's hair was instantly loosened as his body slumped and fell into is own splatter.

All radio's fell silent for a moment, everyone unsure at what just occurred. The air seemed eerily still as all the commotion that just seemed to fill the air was now gone. The only noise was the sound of the news helicopter hovering overhead. Jaune and Ruby sat quietly, both looking through their various sights in order to get a glance at the subject. Ruby swiftly rechambered her rifle, unsure if her shot had landed, even though she could see the family members moving around slightly, including the young girl.

A few seconds later, a muffled command was heard over the radio, followed by a dozen or so of the officers moving up towards the house. The two of them sat anxiously, awaiting the news. A few seconds after the cops reached the door, the radio lit up again.

"Suspect down, I repeat, suspect down." One of the officers said. There was a quiet but audible sigh of relief across the police force. Ruby and Jaune sighed heavily, and Ruby relaxed the grip on her rifle. Both of them took a few moments to relax as more officers began to swarm the house and remove the hostages one by one. Ruby eventually grabbed her ear piece and put it back in her ear. Almost immediately, the chief's voice came over the little speaker.

"Ruby Rose. I want you at my car, now!" He said sternly and angrily. Ruby sighed and groaned at the voice, knowing what came next.

"That was the chief, wasn't it?" Jaune asked.

"Yep." Ruby nodded.

"We're gonna get out asses handed to us by the chief for this, aren't we?" He asked Ruby.

"I am, you'll probably just get a stern warning not to follow my lead, you'll be fine."

"Are you gonna get fired?" He followed up with.

"Probably not, but there's a slight chance." She replied as she began to make her way off the roof.

"Well I hope you don't. Working with you is fun." Jaune said with a smile. Ruby looked him in the eyes and smiled back. He was the first person in a while to say that and it honestly felt good to hear.

"Come on, let's get off the roof before the helicopter finds up." She said, extending a hand to the boy, who gladly accepted it.

By the time the duo got back to the swarm of cop cars on the ground, there were ambulances arriving to take the wounded to the hospital. Ruby and Jaune kept a straight face as they moved through the cars towards the chief's vehicle. Ruby had her weapon thrown over her back and had a look of determination on her face. Upon reaching the vehicle, the chief immediately began ripping into Ruby.

"Do you know what you just did?" He asked, rhetorically.

"I saved the life of a wife and multiple young children?" She responded, unfazed.

"You showed ZERO restraint and lack of caring for you fellow men and women and the hostages!" The chief replied, his face turning slightly red.

"I beg to differ. If I had listened to your orders, I would still be on the roof and you would have a dead child in that living room. I cared more for those kids than you did!" Ruby replied, getting in the chief's face.

The chief was about to start yelling at Ruby when he looked over at the crowd of news reporters and cameras looking their way. He sighed, not wanting to create a scene. "My office. 8 am sharp tomorrow." The chief said before getting into his vehicle and closing the door. He quickly turned on his lights and drove away, leaving Ruby and Jaune by themselves.

"Well that went a lot better than I expected." Ruby said with a smirk, surprised.

"Yeah. I get the feeling that tomorrow isn't gonna be easy for us though." Jaune said, sounding worried.

"Ah. Don't fret it. You'll get used to it." She said, punching the trainee's arm. "Come on. We got the rest of the day off and I know a couple good arcade bars in the area." Ruby said, beginning to walk back towards her cruiser.

Jaune's eyes lit up. "Oh, I will crush you in Guitar Hero!" He said, quickly running to catch up to the short girl.

"You wanna bet on that?" Ruby asked.

"Let's say, five bucks?" Jaune said, stopping to extend a hand.

"I say double it." Ruby replied, extending her hand to almost met Jaune's.

"Ten it is." Jaune said, shaking Ruby's hand.

Ruby let out a chuckle. "You're so fucked." She said, as Ruby continued to walk towards the car.

"We'll see." Jaune replied as the duo approached the car. Ruby popped open the trunk and swung her rifle off her shoulder and carefully put back in its case, making sure to take out the magazine and clearing the chamber. She then closed the trunk and hopped into the front seat, Jaune making his way into the passenger seat.

Ruby started the engine and flipped her lights on. She put the car in reverse and turned around to make sure there was nothing and no one behind her. That's when Ruby saw the family being cared for and loaded in the ambulance. The scene gave Ruby a sense of shallow victor. Sure, she had killed the man responsible for causing this, but now those kids didn't have a father.

"What's wrong, Ruby?" Jaune said, noticing Ruby taking a long time to put the car in gear.

"Just not following my own advice." Ruby said before putting the car in drive and driving away from the scene, making sure to not look back.

**Author's Note:**

**So, I'm not gonna lie, this has been sitting on my hard drive for months now before I remembered its existence. Updates to this story are gonna be slower than my other stories since this isn't in the main three that I'll be working on, but I'll be sure to update this somewhat regularly. Or maybe I'll just forget about it and never update it again. Only time will tell.**

**Oh, and the title of the story, "Vale Tales", won't be sticking around. I just can't think of anything else to call it right now. Leave some suggestions in the review on what I should call it.**

**Anyways, Favorite, Follow, and Review.**

**Peace.**


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